Fate/Zero – 10 Review

As the title of the episode suggests, this episode follows Rin and her “participation” in the Holy Grail War.

I am not really sure what the purpose behind focusing on Rin is meant to be, as ultimately, she hadn’t done anything critical that would leave a huge impact on the war. This episode had instead seemed like a way to do small recap on the current standing of things through the use of Rin chasing after the Serial Kidnapper, Ryunosuke, as well as a way to cover some backstory of the events behind the kidnappings.

Review

Although I would have rather another episode centered on the Holy Grail War, this episode was surprisingly entertaining as well. Despite the fact that it had felt like an episode of “Rin’s Day Out”, the build up of the scenes were nicely done and through Rin, we were given a chance to catch up on Ryunosuke and Kariya.

Tohsaka Rin

Everyone who has seen Fate/Stay Night would know who Rin is, and those who haven’t seen it would have a pretty clear portrayal of her personality by the end of this episode. In short, Rin is smart, obsessed with magic, kind, strong willed and somewhat foolish when it comes to her actions.

Through the course of the episode, we are show Rin learning magic and her application of what she had learned. What part this would play in the Holy Grail War in this series? I haven’t a clue.

What had left me lost was the reason behind why a young girl would be courageous/stupid enough to think that she would be of use investigating such a dangerous case on her own. Heading down to Fyuuki in the middle of the night was a really dumb move by a little girl who is scared out of her mind and uncertain about what to do. No matter how I saw it, it was a tad unbelievable for Rin to have played detective by roaming the late night streets on her own without giving care to whether her parents would worry for her. Sure, one could argue that it is part of her personality to be independent and proactive, but even so I had found it hard to believe. However, even though her attitude didn’t sit too well with me, the structure of the episode had made her actions justifiable the solid impression of her personality from the previous scenes.

What I did like in the episode was how Rin was used in order to reintroduce Kariya and Runosuke, this then led to Kirei being able to track Kariya. Hopefully this might mean that we would be seeing more of Berserker soon.

When Kariya had turned up and had kidnapped Rin, I was mentally screaming “oh shit” and was hoping that Kariya had totally lost his mind and was going to use Rin as a way of gaining the upperhand over Tohsaka. Sadly, he had returned Rin after having a small chat about Sakura. Although I had felt slightly disappointed by that scene, we now know that Kariya is still pretty sane and has retained his moral values, at least for the time being.

The Art

We know that the art for Fate/Zero has been nice thus far. However, this episode had a few moments that had stood out amongst the rest. The backdrops of the scenes in Fyuuki were really nicely done, the contrast between light and darkness had really given off a nice atmosphere. Things were not “too dark” to comprehend and there was a nice vividness in the contrast between the colours.

My favourite scene would still have to be the montage of Rin walking down the hall way of the school. The clips of her walking down the hallway with random “hearsay” clips about the kidnapping had made it feel like we had gotten into Rin’s mind and that had hinted at an impending doom of sorts. This scene was the turning point in the episode when everything had taken on a darker mood and we are no longer simply watching a happy Rin going about her everyday life trying to learn magic whilst bonding with her father.

The oddest part of the episode for me had to be when Rin had forced all her Prana into the bracelet thus destroying it and saving the day. That scene had seemed like a comical “power up” moment that I would have expected from a gaming scene.

Overall

This episode was a nice break from the ongoing plot of the Holy Grail War without it being absolutely random and unconnected. Hopefully the focus will now shift back onto the actual participants of the war and away from Rin. After all, with Rynosuke no longer having his bracelet to aid him in the kidnapping, he has to now run to daddy Caster to get some help.

Episode Rating: 7/10

-ra

Ra’s Fate Question of the Week

Given a chance, which character out of the lot of Masters in this series would you like a childhood backstory of?

For me the character that might make the most interesting story would have to be Ryunosuke. Wouldn’t you like to know how he had gotten so twisted and sadistic?

Everything about Rin’s rescue mission was extremely reckless. There’s a serial killer on the loose abducting children! It sure is a great time to be a child, alone in the city at night, huh Rin? Had Ryuunosuke done anything beyond clumsily grab at her she would have been dead. Even if Ryuunosuke didn’t know anything about magic, he just stared at Rin while she was powering up! Maybe Rin is aware that she appears in FSN so she can’t die. :p

It was a decent episode all and all, we got to see a little more of Kariya and Ryuunosuke. It was a little disconcerting, however, watching Tokiomi dote over Rin when… he kinda sentenced his other daughter to spend the rest of her days being raped… For all her kindness, Rin seems to forget she ever had a sister. Even after Kariya tells Aoi about the terrible fate that awaits Sakura if he doesn’t succeed, she seems more worried about her husband. If I were Kariya I would consider sending Sakura to a better family.

To answer the question of the week, I would like to know about Kirei’s background. I’m trying to imagine him as a child but still having the same voice. lol

“Given a chance, which character out of the lot of Masters in this series would you like a childhood backstory of?”

Hm… Kiritsugu’s backstory will be told in the second half of the anime. We already get bits of Kirei’s past, so flashbacks are unnecessary. All the other Masters’ childhood sound boring, besides Kariya’s one with Aoi. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to show his past. We know they are childhood friends and Kariya was in love with her, that’s all I need to know. Yeah, only Kiritsugu left, but it will definitely be animated, so I don’t have a wish for childhood background stories.

About the episode: Imo, they extended the scene from the novel too much. Story-wise, it’s the weakest episode so far(the whole point was Kariya meeting Aoi and shocking her by telling her he’s a Master and that he wants to prevent Sakura becoming like him and keep suffering. Something Aoi wasn’t aware of…), but the animation was top-notch.

I hope, the next episode will not be screwed up like this episode here because the next part of Act 8 is definitely my favourite one from the first two volumes.

Meh, my nerves were anticipating an epic episode, instead we get a epic in pint-sized portions with a moe flavor. I don’t really mind that (I’m a Rin fan), but I hope they make it up with king-sized epicness next episode!

By the way, I thought Rin’s childhood personality doesn’t match her teenage one. It could be attributed to growing up, though.

This is what happened when the animator makes up story of his own : logic fail 😦
Ryunnosuke is a creepy dude who have slaughtered tons of families without being captured, am I right? He’s not arrested by the authority even before meeting Caster.
Why can’t he disable Rin? Who’s just 5 or 6 years old, considering this is ten years prior to FSN.
One grab to that tiny neck, one squeeze, and all is over.
MEH…

Hmm.. the animators weren’t making up any stories. The entire anime is extremely (nearly word per word) loyal to the light novels. The rin adventure is in the light novels as well and well, its been a while, but as far as I remember, Rin brought with her two jewels packed with prana before going to fuyuki.

The episode was in the novel but was very short (the lancer flashback was longer…). Rin went to search her friend, she found the lair of caster, and was saved by Kariya.
The really important things are the meeting of Kariya and Aoi and Kirei watching Kariya.